George Miller is still down to make more MAD MAX movies, so relax guys. We’ve always known that a trilogy of new MAX flicks was in the works from the get-go, but the intensity of getting FURY ROAD made combined with its somewhat lukewarm box office reception (#375 million worldwide, which is just OK in today’s market) conspired to raise doubts whether or not we’d actually get another installment, let alone two.
But good old George, at the age of 70, isn’t about to back off. It was reported last week that Miller had set his sights on directing a smaller film next, just in the name of refreshing his batteries and tackling something a little, let’s say, less strenuous. But MAX shall indeed return if he gets his way.
Speaking to Top Gear, Miller revealed what we already knew – that making FURY ROAD was a giant pain in the ass – as well as the fact that he’s still got two more scripts waiting in the wings:
This film [Fury Road] was green lit three times and fell over three times over a decade. We went to shoot with Mel Gibson back in 2001, but then 9/11 happened, and the American dollar collapsed against the Australian dollar close to 30 per cent, so we lost that amount of budget overnight.
We were then rained out of Australia. The desert rained for the first time in 15 years, and we ended up in South West Africa, Namibia. But in this process, we had dug down deep into the backstory, not only of the characters, but of every vehicle. How the steering wheels became religious artefacts and things like that.
So we ended up with two scripts, without really trying. We’re talking to the studio [Warner Bros] about it as we speak, but which one of the two stories will happen next, I’m not so sure.”
Miller then spoke to this new, smaller film before again returning to the topic of the future of his post-apocalyptic franchise:
I want to do a small film without special effects before I do any of that, just to do it quickly. We shot Fury Road for eight months… that’s a lot. Every day in the heat and the dust, doing these stunts, it’s very wearing. We’ve got two more planned, but at some point in the future.”
I think we can all sympathize with George wanting to tackle something a little smaller after the insanity of making fury road, he’s earned it. At the same time, which FURY ROAD fan among us isn’t dying to return to that world – as quickly as possible?